Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors/variables and the importance of those factors during cochlear implant (CI) device selection by parents of recent pediatric CI recipients in the United States. The researcher created an electronic survey and asked audiologists and hearing-related professionals at various hospitals and CI centers across the United States to distribute the survey link to the parents of any of their pediatric CI patients who received CI surgery within the past two years under the age of five years. The survey included both Likert-type and open-ended questions regarding the importance of various factors/variables to the parents during their child’s CI device selection. Results of the study found that the participants ranked reported reliability and speech perception performance of the respective manufacturer’s CI device as the most important factor. Individually, the parents of Cochlear, Ltd. recipients found recommendations from others and the popular brand of the company to be most important; based on a limited sample, parents of Advanced Bionics recipients found the CI device’s waterproof capabilities to be most important; and, also based on a limited sample, parents of MED-EL recipients found the reported speech perception performance to be most important.

Advisor

Goldberg, Donald

Department

Communication Studies

Disciplines

Speech Pathology and Audiology

Keywords

cochlear implants, cochlear implant device selection, pediatric cochlear implant recipients

Publication Date

2016

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis Exemplar

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© Copyright 2016 Zachary W. Moore